Descendants of Jan Locrherst

Generation No. 9

10.JUDGE PHILLIP(JUDGE)9 RINGO (JANNETJE8VAN STOUTENBURG, PIETER7, WILLEM(WILLIAM) S.6VAN OLDENBARNEVELDT, JOHAN5, GERRIT4, REIJER3, ALEIDJANSDER2VAN LOCRHERST, JAN1LOCRHERST) was born November 02, 1682 in New Amsterdam, NY, and died May 10, 1757 in Amwell, Hunterdon, NJ. He married (1) CATRINA RINGO. He married (2) JANET JANE COOK May 15, 1721 in Hunterdon Co., NJ, daughter of HENRY COOK and WYNTJE KLAUW. She was born June 13, 1701 in Emden, Germany, and died December 30, 1750 in Hopewell, Hunterdon, NJ.

Notes forJUDGE PHILLIP(JUDGE) RINGO:
Judge Philip Ringo (Albertus Philipszen, Philip Janszen) was born in New York, New York County, New York 2 NOV 1682. Philip died 10 MAY 1757 in Ringoes, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, at age 74. His body was interred after 10 MAY 1757 at cemetery unknown in Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.(57)

He married twice. He married Janet Jane Cook 15 MAY 1721 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Janet was born 13 JUN 1701 in Emden, Germany. Janet was the daughter of Henry Cook and Wyntje Franse Klauw. Janet died 20 DEC 1750 at age 49.
He married Cathrina (_____) after 1750. (Additional notes for Cathrina (_____)

He was baptized 15 NOV 1682 in New York, New York County, New York.(61) PHILIP RINGO was born November 2, 1682 in New York City, New York; first boy and son of Albertus Ringo and Jannetje Stoutenburg. He was baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church there on November 15, 1682 by Domine Hendricus Selyns. His Godparents were Jan Philipszen (John 1st) Ringo, his uncle, and Engeltie Stoutenburg (Waldron), his aunt.

It was through this child, Philip (1D2) that the family name of Ringo was carried on in America.

Philip grew up with his brothers and sisters in their parents' cottage-shop at the
northeast corner of Broad Street and Exchange Place. (A large bank building, just
opposite the New York Stock Exchange, covers the Ringo plot and others there.) He received a good education and wrote a good hand. Undoubtedly he attended the Collegiate School of the Dutch Reformed Church of which both his grandfather and father were at different times members of the two-man ruling board.

When a census of the city was made in 1702 he was there with his parents and the rest of the family, at age twenty. It seems apparent that in his youth he was drawn to the sea, just as were his two uncles and Grandfather Ringo. On July 28, 1704 he was again in New York and volunteered to go with an expedition from that port to drive off a French privateer, which had been harassing English shipping off the coast.

When his father Albertus made the difficult decision to leave New York City, which by then was overrun by shoemakers, Philip, along with his brothers, Cornelius and Peter, dutifully did their bit in preparing a new home for the family in the back woods of West Jersey. In the process and because Mahlon Stacy's grist mill was the only center of activity at the falls of the Delaware, Philip must have spent all his spare time there.

Indications are that by late 1706 he had made a place for himself there and was
learning a new trade. He later became a full fledged miller and records indicate that he maintained a relationship with this mill, including its later owner, William Trent, of nearly twenty years.

In the course of this Philip brought a new occupation into the Ringo family, which
produces several generations of millers over the next hundred and fifty years.

Since there was no church or tavern in the small settlement (later to become Trenton, New Jersey), the mill was a great place to meet people and make new friends, as it was the only place for miles around where the settlers could get their corn ground.

By January 11, 1712 when a movement of the settlers began to ask for the creation of a new county from the present one of Burlington, Philip Ringo was made the treasurer of these activities. The county seat at Burlington City had grown more distant for new arrivals, all of whom were making homes north of there. The Ringos at their location were in Maidenhead Township, still largely uncleared, and north of it was the Township of Hopewell, 30,000 acres of virgin forest with only scattered settlings. Now a huge area further north had been named Amwell. It was these three townships that were proposed to be the new county.

Apparently Philip took readily to politicking and the new county was created, with
meetings to be held at Stacy's mill and Albertus Ringo, as one of the new Justices of the Peace.

Indications are that Philip soon became more interested in the area of the new county in the northern part of Maidenhead and the southern part of Hopewell. In 1715 at a meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, held in New Castle, Delaware, Philip Ringo "having presented a call from the people of Maidenhead and Hopewell in West Jersey (for a minister), unto Mr. Robert Orr, the presbytery called for, considered and approved his credentials as a preacher of the gospel, and likewise considered and approved the call." The settlers of that area were to have a new church and a new shepherd.

By 1717 Philip Ringo had been made the Assessor of the Township of Maidenhead, while his father, Albertus, had in December of the previous year received a new "Commission of ye Justice of ye Peace of ye Hunterdon County."

Philip, however, must have continued his explorations of Hopewell Township for a mill site because by early the next year he had found a likely one there on a stream called Stony Brook. As was so often the custom then, he probably had it built, the mill stones in place and the waterwheel rolling, when November 3, 1718 (in the Fifth Year of Our Lord George, by the grace of God, King of Britain, France and Ireland) he was given a deed to the plot containing thirty acres.

The indenture was from James Harpon (Harpin), Yeoman, of the County of Hunterdon to Philip Ringo of the same county, "Gen't." Harpon had bought the property in 1704 from John Hutchison and sold to Ringo for the sum of "five pounds lawfull money of Philadelphia."

Nearly two hundred years later Ralph Ege, a historian of Hopewell wrote of the
importance of Philip Ringo's mill, calling it "Glen Moore," a name it later acquired. "The erection of the mill at Glen Moore was an event in the lives of the old pioneers squalling in importance the building of the first railroad through the valley one hundred and fifty years later; and their emotions must have been akin to those of their descendants who saw the first iron-horse cross Stony Brook on the morning of January 16, 1873. With our present facilities for reaching Trenton by rail and a good macadam road, and also the convenience of having the staff of life brought daily to our doors, it is difficult for us to realize that our forefathers, who first settled this valley, were obliged to transport all their grain for mill or market on pack horses, either to tidewater at Trenton, or to the Raritan (River) at New Brunswick."

Obviously Philip Ringo's mill was an immediate success, particularly with the
up-country people but by 1721 when he had reached the age of thirty-nine he was still single. On May 13th of that year this situation was corrected. His new wife was Jane Cook, born June 13, 1701 probably in Burlington County, West Jersey shortly after her parents had moved there from Kingston, New York. Her father, Henry Cook, was English and her mother, Wyntje Franse Klauw, was Dutch. The marriage likely took place at the little Presbyterian Church, which Philip had helped to form.

During this same year Philip Ringo served Hunterdon County as Collector, and was much involved with the laying out of roads as a Surveyor and Commissioner of Highways. Many of the Township of Hopewell meetings were held at his mill and he was chosen as a Freeholder (still an elective office in New Jersey) for Hopewell.

A Hunterdon County Tax List for 1722 shows him with one mill and fifty acres, having added an adjoining twenty acres since his original purchase. During the year he continued to hold township office and was again active in the surveying of roads, most of which followed the earlier Indian paths. One of these was the so-called Roger Park's Road (Trenton to Hopewell) formerly the Wissamenson or Wissomency Indian path. Another road Philip helped to lay out was one to the Reading tract, "Mount Amwell" in the township of that name and only a short distance west of the Indian path crossing, where some said his uncle, John Ringo, earlier made his home.

The big event of the year, though, was the birth on October 8, 1722 of the first child of Philip Ringo and Jane Cook, who was a boy and according to custom was named after his paternal grandfather, Albertus.

The year 1723 was an active one for Philip. He was commissioned a Captain of the Hopewell Militia of which Daniel Coxe was Colonel, and he continued to act as the collector for the township. In that year he was also named to be a Justice of the Peace for Hunterdon County, and in the next few years of his stay in Hopewell his official activities tended to be more county oriented.

December 14, 1724 brought the Ringo couple another boy, who was dutifully named Henry after his maternal grandfather. The tax list of that year showed Philip with the same holdings in Hopewell, while his father was holding property near Trent's Mill. It was also in this year near Christmas that William Trent died, and New Jersey lost its Chief Justice, while Philip Ringo lost what must have been a good friend, since they had continued to cooperate with each other, although rival mill owners.

The next five years rolled by with business good and both of Philip's brothers, Cornelius and Peter holding office in their respective townships of Maidenhead and Hopewell. The mill and his position as Justice must have taken more of his time because during this period Philip Ringo is regularly shown attending the Quarterly Sessions of the Justices. On the bench his decisions seem to have held up reasonably well except in the case of a dispute between Ralph Hunt of Hop ewell and Albertus Opdyke of Maidenhead over a hog. Here he was reversed.

As the decade of the 1720s neared its close, some occurrences took place with the Ringos, which are not readily explained by the very sketchy records of the times. Sometime probably in the year 1730 Philip Ringo sold what must have been a very prosperous mill in Hopewell and moved another eight miles north to a more primitive location in Amwell, which was the same one with which Jersey tradition and writers associate the name of his great uncle, Jan Philipszen (John 1st) Ringo. While some say that Philip moved to this up-country crossing of Indian trails and later built another mill south of there, the facts and the records do not bear this out.

With the sale of his mill in Hopewell, the deed for which is missing (as are nearly
one-third of all New Jersey deeds of That time), Philip Ringo gave up his occupation of miller and took on a completely new one as a Tavernkeeper. It was also one with which no one else in his family had been associated other than his uncle, John Ringo!

Further there seems to be no discernible economic reason for Philip's move, granting the need of all farmers to have their grain ground. While Philip, his father and both brothers were involved in a certain amount of Clawing," a common practice in those days, its level at that time was about normal. Philip continued to hold down his position as Justice, in fact took on additional public duties in his new home in Amwell.

But move he did at an age of about 48. Some say in 1730, while others suggest 1731. It is known that there was one Theophilis Ketchum, who bought a twenty-five acre farm tract in 1726 in Amwell, who is said to have kept a tavern there until 1729. His location was just across the road from the original five acre plot, where Philip Ringo built his tavernhouse, and the twenty-five acre tract was later taken over by Philip.

It would seem most likely that with the same need his father earlier had for housing at Trenton, Philip would have delayed his actual move from Hopewell until after Jane gave birth to their third son, Peter, on June 1, 1730. The child was named for his uncle, Peter Ringo, a resident of Hopewell Township who was probably already ill, as-his will is dated July 31, 1730. It was probated shortly thereafter and by August 30th of that year the Court had named Philip the administrator of the estate.

It was not until August 6, 1736 that Philip Ringo received a deed for the five acre plot of land at the crossroads in Amwell Township (now the center of the village of Ringoes) from John Dagworthy of Trenton (at one time High Sheriff of Hunterdon County). The indenture refers to Dagworthy as "Shopkeeper" and to Philip Ringo as "Innholder." It also makes reference to Ringo's dwelling house on the acreage and that the property bounds that of the deceased Ketchum on the west. The price was 30 Pounds, not an inconsiderable sum for those days.

In 1732-1733 Philip Ringo begins to appear in the records regarding Amwell and he, of course, continues to be active in the Quarter Session Courts of Hunterdon County. In March 1734 a town meeting was held in Amwell Township at which Philip was named Collector.

This was also the year of the death of Albertus Ringo in Trenton, and the advertisement of March 28th placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette offering his property for sale, asks that Philip be contacted at Amwell.

It is certain that when the Ringo's fourth son was born, March 18, 1736, it was in the tavernhouse at the crossroads in Amwell. He was quite properly named John, for his uncle, John Ringo. The writers and historians have frequently confused these two, and accordingly in this volume and in the Ringo Family Chart they are referred to as John Ringo, 1st and John Ringo, 2nd.

The Philip Ringo family had established themselves in Amwell on the five acre plot on the east side of the point where the two crude roads crossed. There he built his house close to the road and facing it. At the upper end near the front door he dug a good well, which was fed by spring waters, and at the opposite end of the house also near the road stood a large and ancient tree, which gave shade to the passageway back to the tavern-yard, where he later erected stables and other out buildings. The house itself was described as a "two-roomed log-house with a spacious loft and a broad veranda extending from end to end of the southern facade."

In 1737 Philip Ringo took advantage of the founding of a Loan Office for the county by taking out a mortgage on his property for 20 Pounds while he and his brother, Cornelius, did likewise on their deceased father's property in Trenton.

Hunterdon was by now the largest county in New Jersey, the northern boundary so far from the south that a new county, Morris, was set off from the upper section. The Amwell area, where the King's Highway and the York Road from Pennsylvania crossed, became a favorite with settlers who came there from three different directions. From the north via Somerset and Middlesex came Dutch, English, Walloon and other families from New York; from the south came English Quakers and others of the same nationality, who had come there earlier from Long Island; and from Pennsylvania came a flow of Germans.

The country around Philip Ringo's tavern became a miniature "melting pot" similar to what New Amsterdam had been but without the Dutch predominance. Philip's training back in New York City and evident knowledge of languages must have contributed greatly to the success of his new business venture.

Charles S. Boyer who collected material on the old inns and taverns of West Jersey says:

"The first that is known of the famous Ringo's Tavern is in the application of Philip Ringo for a tavern license in May 1738. During his tenure at this tavern, which lasted until 1758 or 1759, the political and community activities of Amwell Township centered around this house. Located at the intersection of the Old York Road (from Lambertville through Mount Airy and Reaville to Newark) and the road which ran from Trenton to Sussex County, by way of Flemington, there was always considerable travel through Ringo's and it attained a wide publicity."

Actually 1738 seems to be the first year that a formal list was kept of licensees, Joseph Inslee and John Taylor being the only others in the vast area of Amwell to obtain them.

By 1739 government was again catching up with settlement, and the old days of
unlicensed tapping, which Philip's uncle may have enjoyed, were gone with the
passage in the colony that year of a "Bill for Regulating Taverns, Ordinaries, Inn
Keepers and Retailing of Strong Liquors."

It was also in that year on April 28th that Jane Cook presented Philip Ringo with his fifth and final child, another boy, Cornelius, named for his surviving uncle. The father was then fifty-six, while his wife was thirty-seven years of age.

Philip Ringo apparently kept up his relationship with the Presbyterian Church of
Hopewell and Maidenhead for a period of time, but the evangelistic services of the Reverend John Rowland in Amwell must have gotten him interested in the Calvinistic church locally. When under the sponsorship of Rowland and others, the renowned George Whitefield spoke in April at an open field, only a few miles northeast of the Tavern, to "several thousand" listeners from all over the county, Philip must have been one of the few to miss the occasion because of his wife's lying in and the overflow of customers.

The business at the tavern kept on growing in the following years, as did the small settlement strung loosely around the crossroads. Philip continued to serve as a Justice of the Peace for Hunterdon, attending sessions as far away as Perth Amboy. Closer to home for his customers and neighbors he frequently helped them to make wills, acted as a witness to documents, served as administrator of estates, and made inventories for them.

On April 18, 1744 Philip Ringo, "Esquire of Amwell" boughs en additional eight acres adjoining his property for 51 Pounds from the same John Dagworthy. The deed of that day acknowledges that the land has been in Ringo's possession (probably under rental) for some time as the needs of the tavern expanded.

It was in this same year that the Township of Amwell began keeping formal records by detailing the earmarkings used by some forty-three residents on their animals, who frequently became strays. Philip Ringo's name was not included but many of the subsequent meetings of the township were held at his "House" (Tavern).

His activities seem to be confined to his business, where he regularly renewed his tavernkeeper's license, and his work as Justice, where year after year his commission E was renewed. His only public service to his township being to act as the Assessor from 1746 to 1749.

Philip Ringo and his wife, Jane, saw their first born son, Albertus (who seems to have spelled his name Albartes during his lifetime), married on September 19, 1745 to Catherine (Katherine) Godown, a local girl, and on March 21, 1749 must have witnessed the marriage of son, Henry, to Margaret Major. Only a week later Philip Ringo was appointed to be a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

The year 1750 was to be one of mixed blessings for the Philip Ringo family. On August 23 of that year their first grandchild was born. He was the child of Henry Ringo and his wife, Margaret Major, and was named Philip for his paternal grandfather. December though was to bring great distress to the old tavernkeeper. During a few short days of the Christmas season, he was to lose his wife of twenty-nine years and their son, Peter, a promising young man of twenty. He died on December 22, 1750, while his mother, Jane, is said to have died on December 30, 1750 (although another source has the date as the 20th). They were both buried in a family graveyard laid out at the end of a driftway, which began across the road from their house and was a part of the twenty-five
acre tract bought earlier as a woodlot by Philip from the Ketchum heirs. (This is now the location of the large monument erected to John Ringo, which is now reached by a driveway from Boss Road, which goes west from the center of the village of Ringoes.)

At this point in time, Philip Ringo was sixty-eight years of age, and his only sons still at home were John, fourteen, and his younger brother, Cornelius, eleven, who had been apprenticed out to learn a trade. The burdens of running the tavern and rearing his two young sons must have laid heavy on him. So probably after a decent interval of mourning, Philip took a second wife whose name was Cathrina. There is no known record of their marriage or of her family name.

Henry Ringo and his wife, Margaret Major, produced another son, born December 15, 1751 and named Peter, for his young uncle who had passed away the previous year. Another son was born to them on September 11, 1753, who was named Cornelius, apparently for his uncle of the same name. In 1755 on August 15th, their fourth son was born and named Major, using his mother's last name as a first one.

Meanwhile the Township of Amwell meeting continued at Ringo's Tavern, as did some of the meetings of the Assessors of Hunterdon, of which Philip was now one, and many other of the county assemblages. His son, John, took to tavernkeeping and apparently began to take over many of his father's duties in the business.

In the spring of 1757 time began to catch up with Philip Ringo and on April 21, 1757 he made a will (some say written in his own hand). It was a careful and deliberate one, which might be expected of one who had spent most of his life dealing with judicial matters.

He carefully recites that he is "of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given to God therefore," and calls "to mind the uncertainty of life" before laying out the details.

Philip provided for his second wife, Cathrina, requiring that she receive 10 Pounds annually and a room in his house as long as she shall remain his widow. Also during that period she is to have the use of "his negro wensh called Noane." Further she is to have any furniture or furnishings which she brought to the marriage.

Other than specific bequests, his estate was to be divided equally among his four surviving sons, "Albertus, Henry, John and Cornelius Ringo." The elder was to receive "all that plantation he now lives on situate in Amwell," which he had bought from John Quick and Daniel Carline. He also gave Albertus "my large Duch Byble, a Duch testament with silver clasps, one pare of guard sleeve butters, and also one sett of silver butters, I have now to a pear of britches.''

To son, Henry, he gave "all that lott or tract of land he now lives on, lying in Hopewell (Township), which I bought of John Cox Esquire." He was also to receive "twenty-five pounds proclamation money for the use of his family" within nine months of his father's death.

To son, John, who had been running the Inn he left all his "lotts of land in Amwell,
whereon I now dwell, and which at low several times were bought from John
Dagworthy. As also the lott of land which I bought from Johannes Housel." John was also to receive the negro boy called Patrick and a gray mare; but is required to supply his stepmother with "sufficient vituals and drink for her in sickness and health." He was also to see that she was always supplied with firewood "at the door" for her wants.

To son, Cornelius, still a minor, he left the lot of land (twenty-five acres) bought of John Ketchum, "excepting thereout for the use of the family for Ever a Burying yard of fifty foot square at the westermost corner next to Rudolf Hearlies (Harlie) lines." There was also to be run a ten foot road along the north line of the property to the King's Road so as to provide access. Brother John was to have the use of the property until Cornelius reached twenty-one, but was to allow the stepmother to have what she would out of the orchard and not to hire out the land or in any way impoverish it. At his majority, Cornelius was also to receive 60 Pounds, which was to be put out at interest within twelve months. Cornelius was to be furnished with clothing during his apprenticeship and also to get one pair of gold sleeve buttons.

To his grandson Philip (son of Henry) he gives his "great English Byble," and also "one pare of silver Bockels I now have for shoes." In addition young Philip was to have 10 Pounds put out at interest within eighteen : months and to be kept until he reached the age of twenty-one.

Further the will provided that all of Philip Sr.'s "wearing apparel!, both woolen and linnen'' be divided amongst his sons. His brother Cornelius and two oldest sons, Albertus and Henry, were nominated as Administrators.

Three friends and neighbors of Philip Ringo, Icabod Leigh, Henry Landis and George Trout, witnessed the will. The will was proved by oath of Leigh and Trout on May 23, 1757. "Albartus" Ringo and "henery" Ringo were sworn and signed as executors on the same day. Cornelius Ringo, just turned sixty-two and living in Maidenhead Township must have waived his appointment in favor of his nephews closer by.

The inventory made a few days earlier by Timothy and Jonathan Smith was about what you would expect of an important tavernkeeper of that period. The property of Philip Ringo was listed as:

Olde Iron, Bells, fire shovel, tongs, four candelsticks, and several other things on
kitchen mantelpiece also a spring fan, four pots and broken caper kettel, tubs and pails in kitchen, Plaits and Sundries on kitchen rack, pair of Beam Stilyard and Box Iron, Tea Kittell, crockyware and four decanters,

A Negro woman and boy. Ten sheets, sixteen pillowcases, two tabelclothes, 8 napkins. Woollen and Lining Wheal, Indian Corn, aide cashes and Lumber in the Chamber, heap of clean wheat in chamber, heap of clean oats in chamber, Olde chest and two old cases of hotels, Cydermill and olde caskes, Pinte, Quart and half gallon measure, two tin funnels, Hoghed with rum in it and Barel with wine, lumber in the Celler.

Parcel of bacon and beef, Parcel of Hay in Barrock,peace of green wheat in ground, black horse and white mair, three young cattel, five young swine, iron bound wagon and old sleigh, two plows with one set plow irons, and pitchfork and dung fork."

PHILIP RINGO, the son of Albertus Ringo and Jannetje Stoutenburg, had died at his house by the crossroads in Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey on May 10, 1757 at the age of seventy-four. He was buried in the family graveyard across the road beside his first wife, Jane Cook, and his third son, Peter.

Judge Philip Ringo and Janet Jane Cook had the following children:
Children of PHILLIP RINGO and JANET COOK are: